The present invention relates to an information providing and processing apparatus, an information providing and processing method, and an information providing and processing program storage medium for constituting illustratively a chat system or a bulletin board system.
There is widespread acceptance today of so-called chat systems and bulletin board systems whereby multiple users of personal computers interconnected over the Internet communicate with one another by having their computers send, receive and display text via suitable servers.
Each user""s personal computer has a screen which displays the user""s and other users"" remarks in text and through which the user""s remarks are sent in text when so designated. The screen through which to send each user""s remarks comprises a text input field and a xe2x80x9cSENDxe2x80x9d button. After entering a remark into the field, the user clicks on the xe2x80x9cSENDxe2x80x9d button to get the remark displayed on the screens of all currently communicating users, i.e., the screens of the sending and receiving users.
With a typical chat system, a remark-entering user""s name and his or her remark are displayed line by line on the personal computer screens of the user in question and of the other connected users. When an appropriate button is manipulated on the computer or upon elapse of a predetermined period of time, the name of the remark-entering user is read from a suitable server along with his or her remarks in text.
With a bulletin board system, a list of titles about remarks appears on the screen of each user""s personal computer. The titles are linked to pages of the applicable remarks in text. When a user clicks on a given title of remarks in the list, the remarks in question appear in text on the user""s personal computer screen.
When a user wants to send a desired URL (Uniform Resource Locator) to other users through a chat system or a bulletin board system, the user must write in full the URL such as xe2x80x9chttp://vaio.sony.co.jp/xe2x80x9d to the text of remarks.
In communicative setups such as chat systems and other networks, the user has thus been required conventionally to write an entire URL text such as xe2x80x9chttp://vaio.sony.co.jp/xe2x80x9d when sending the URL in question to other users. The need to write whole URLs has been tedious and troublesome for the users.
The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances and provides an apparatus, a method and a medium for easily and quickly sending to other users"" addresses for uniquely identifying where specific information is located.
In carrying out the invention and according to one aspect thereof, there is provided an information providing and processing apparatus for supplying a file over a network to an information processing apparatus requesting the file which is written in a predetermined page description language and which describes information for linking to other files on the network, the information providing and processing apparatus including: a recording means for recording relations between a predetermined keyword on the one hand, and an address for uniquely designating a file corresponding to the keyword on the network on the other hand; and a translating means for translating the keyword included in text data received from the information processing apparatus into data with a tag related to the address corresponding to the keyword.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided an information providing and processing method for supplying a file over a network to an information processing apparatus requesting the file which is written in a predetermined page description language and which describes information for linking to other files on the network, the information providing and processing method including the steps of: recording relations between a predetermined keyword on the one hand, and an address for uniquely designating a file corresponding to the keyword on the network on the other hand; and translating the keyword included in text data received from the information processing apparatus into data with a tag related to the address corresponding to the keyword.
According to a further aspect of the invention, there is provided a medium for storing an information providing and processing program for supplying a file over a network to an information processing apparatus requesting the file which is written in a predetermined page description language and which describes information for linking to other files on the network, the information providing and processing program including the steps of: recording relations between a predetermined keyword on the one hand, and an address for uniquely designating a file corresponding to the keyword on the network on the other hand; and translating the keyword included in text data received from the information processing apparatus into data with a tag related to the address corresponding to the keyword.
Through the use of the above-outlined information providing and processing apparatus, information providing and processing method, and information providing and processing program storage medium according to the invention, relations are recorded between predetermined keywords on the one hand and addresses for uniquely designating files corresponding to the keywords on the other hand. Any one of such keywords included in text data from an information processing apparatus is translated into data with a tag related to the address corresponding to the keyword in question.
Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will become more apparent upon a reading of the following description and appended drawings.